I have been in St James’ Hospital for two and a half weeks due to a nasty fall.

I’m sick and tired of people complaining that the nursing staff are not doing the work they should be doing.

These people who are complaining should go and do their job, just for one week. They are all little angels and are short of staff and do all they can to care for the sick. Please give them some credit. A bit of praise would do no harm.

I am well now, thanks to all the nurses and working staff at St James’.

I read with interest that Rachel Reeves MP and Judith Blake, leader of Leeds Council, are using International Women’s Day to call upon the people of Leeds to fund a statue of one of Leeds’s great women (YEP, March 8).

What a curious way to hijack International Women’s Day. At a point in time when many women in our great city are struggling to feed their families and buy essential items, wouldn’t it be wiser for our political leaders to point their efforts into setting up a fund in the name of a great Leeds woman to support women trying to set up businesses and create employment opportunities for others?

The “mumpreneur” economy is, after all, worth £7bn and it would be great to see a bigger slice of this in Leeds.

All of the women mentioned, including Barbara Taylor Bradford, Nicola Adams and Beryl Burton, seem to me to epitomise everything that’s great about Leeds women – pragmatic, practical and determined and, I’d guess, would be horrified at the thought of the people of Leeds having their money wasted on a statue.

DS Boyes, Leeds 13

Where does the obsession with putting up statues to dead people, whether men or women, regardless of their percieved historic achievements, come from?

How many today can actually remember them or have any real interest once the statue is erected? A lot of effort went into getting one of Leeds’ WW2 heroes, RAF officer Arthur Louis Aaron VC - a cousin of his was in a higher class than me at school in the mid-50s - yet where did Leeds City Council place it? In the most disrespectful place they could find, ie at the bottom of Eastgate by the busy roundabout there.

Even Queen Victoria relegated from outside the town hall to Woodhouse Moor, with other worthies also gone from City Square. Also, many statues are often put in places with little or no real connection with the subject. If either Coun Blake or Rachel Reeves MP want to do something useful for women, why not campaign against the discrimination on State Pension age raised by ‘New’ Labour from 60 to 65, now 66, which will rob the many women of age 60 on International Women’s Day of £50,000 in old age pension benefit. Or alternatively campaign against the other outrageous unfairness of their constituents paying from NHS prescriptions, university tuition and hospital parking, these all free plus lots more in Scotland and Wales, thanks again to ‘New’ Labour’s flawed devolution settlements.

E M Newton

This talk of a statue for a woman in Leeds, I think first there should be a more suitable place found for th eon eof our city’s only Victoria Cross recipient of World War Two.

When asked, none could say where it was. To see it you would probably risk getting knocked down.

B Bacon, Pudsey

A statue doesn’t benefit anyone.

If money can be raised, could it not be used to keep open a care home which then would be renamed after the illustrious Leeds woman chosen?

Muddled and inconsistent

D Doolan, Leeds 15

I wonder when we’ll get some substantial economic arguments about the positive case for leaving the EU rather than just insulting Remainers as did the ridiculous David Gibbs (YEP Letters March 11) claiming treason?

Since the referendum all we seem to hear from many of the 37 per cent of the electorate who voted to leave (and wouldn’t have accepted a 52-48 remain vote) is ‘enemies of the people’ and ‘treason’ to those who disagree with them.

Funnily enough they don’t like being called Bridiots despite some of the most muddled and inconsistent thinking they come out with.

They do not seem to see the stupid irony of their bleating - wanting parliamentary democracy and the UK courts to decide and implement our law then when that happens being apoplectic when they do.

Then this week we see two constituencies who voted leave - Ellesmere Port and Luton - worried about a bleak future when Peugot (13 per cent owned by the French government), bought their car plants. Who would vote leave when the main local business is an international one dependent on exports?

The EU referendum came about because of David Cameron’s pathetic attempts to get change in the EU. Since then we have heard continual lies about the future from both sides and it is only now we are starting to see some facts and hard reality.

There would be plenty of time to see the full details and potential impact of the deal and vote within the two year deadline. Are these committed democrats scared of another vote because they know they would probably lose? If they are sure of their case they should support a fully-informed and final referendum.

Cutting of stroke services

Christine Hyde, by email

Who knew we have only a few days to go before the end of a consultation about the NHS STP inspired cutting of stroke services in West Yorkshire?

Sure, Healthwatch has emailed questionnaires to some ‘community groups’ but actually in law, those are not ‘the public’. And anyway is a set of questions with tickbox answers a consultation, or a survey?

At the West Yorkshire Joint Scrutiny Committee in Leeds, the CEO for Wakefield CCG was keen to extoll the virtues of stroke services at Pinderfields, however at the recent ‘engagement’ with the North Kirklees CCG it was revealed that what they are paying for, is not what they are getting, most likely, according to the story told, because of the coalition government’s failure to commission enough training places for all doctors since 2010 and therefore inability of all Trusts to fill rotas with the right staff.

Anyone is at risk of a stroke and people over 65 more so. It is now classed as an illness from which we can recover in order to time limit post hospital support. But to recover, we need good hospital treatment fast! Any spin in Healthwatch’s blurb about improving services should have a health warning* *‘Government terms and conditions apply.’

Take home litter

Marilyn S Shaw, Dewsbury

I am dismayed, disgusted and disappointed by my fellow countrymen/women with the amount of rubbish that litters our towns, cities and countryside.

Much of the rubbish is thrown from vehicles. In addition to this is the amount of regular fly-tipping which has then to be removed by councils.

It seems short-sighted of councils to charge for vans to bring rubbish in when they then have to send out their own vehicles when the rubbish has been fly-tipped in, usually, a local beauty spot.

With regard to the thoughtless people who throw out rubbish from their cars, or drop cans down where they walk, surely it does not need a great deal of intelligence to think about taking their rubbish home with them and putting in their own bins?

In my local area there are a group of people who have taken to ‘clearing up days’ and have made a splendid job (I hasten to add I will join them on their next ‘day’), and say thank you for your public spirit.

We can all learn a lesson here. Can my fellow citizens please think about the beautiful country we have, show a little pride and take home any litter they make.